Blackouts

WhatsApp is adding proxy support to enable users to stay connected during internet blackouts. The Meta-owned messaging app will let users connect to a proxy server to send and receive messages when the internet is blocked or restricted in their areas. This feature is available globally across all platforms.According to WhatsApp, proxy connections will maintain the same level of privacy and security you already get. All messages will still be end-to-end encrypted, ensuring that no one can see your conversations apart from…

LONDON—Europe’s energy-squeezed winter has sent power operators and businesses into high alert for blackout risks, heightened by Russia’s war in Ukraine. In a control room in Glasgow, dozens of engineers and supervisors for months have been executing a series of “desktop rehearsals,” in which they game out the many various ways a blackout could unfold.  Winter is always dicey in Northern Europe, said Guy Jefferson, operations chief for ScottishPower’s SP Energy Networks in…

Two-thirds of the US population faced snowstorms, high winds, or frigid winter weather over the Christmas holiday weekend, leading to at least 52 deaths and pushing the electricity grid to the brink of failure. And in many instances, it did. At its peak on Christmas, an estimated 1.7 million businesses and homes faced power outages. It was the coldest Christmas in recent memory, and that meant a predictable surge in heating demand as temperatures dropped. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power for 10…

Sunspot AR3165 has been exploding incessantly since the last two days. Multiple M-class solar flares directed at the Earth have caused frequent shortwave radio blackouts. Two days ago, it was reported that a particularly unstable sunspot, AR3165 has been causing worries for the astronomers and it appears that the worries have come true. Since late night on December 15, this particular sunspot has witnessed multiple explosions that sparked more than 18 M-class solar flares. The magnetic filaments that carry an extremely…

Ukraine warned there would be emergency blackouts once again in several regions as it repaired damage from missile attacks it said destroyed homes and knocked out power, while Moscow accused Kyiv of attacking deep inside Russia with drones. A new Russian missile barrage had been anticipated in Ukraine for days and it took place on Monday just as emergency blackouts were due to end, with previous damage repaired. The strikes, which plunged parts of Ukraine back into freezing darkness with temperatures below zero Celsius…

The Biden administration made a significant shift in its Venezuela policy when it allowed Chevron Corp. CVX -0.29% to pump oil in the South American country again, but the decision will yield little increase to the world’s oil production in the short-term.The U.S. company will have to contend with myriad technical issues at Venezuela’s aging oil fields and a complicated network of remaining U.S. sanctions that must be altered to ensure more of the country’s oil reaches…

A Canadian-American consortium swept into Puerto Rico last year with promises to transform the island’s antiquated power grid. Many residents welcomed the change, tired of subpar service from a state-run utility that left them in darkness for months after a strong hurricane five years ago. But since the private company, Luma Energy LLC, took charge of the grid in June 2021, power outages on the island have lengthened. Hurricane Fiona, a less-than-ferocious category-1 storm in September, caused an island-wide…

The electricity industry is increasingly turning to a tool of last resort when power demand threatens to outstrip supply: asking users to turn off the lights.To get through temperature extremes and tight electricity supplies, grid operators are relying more on conservation pleas to everyone from homeowners to manufacturers and some of the biggest users, bitcoin miners. Such requests aren’t new, but they are becoming more urgent as weather patterns become more extreme and construction of new infrastructure for…

A massive sunspot can explode any moment, and spew out a powerful solar flare. This can even cause radio blackouts on Earth. In the last few days, the Earth was anticipating a big threat from the Sun. It is a gigantic sunspot called AR3141 which exploded last week resulting in a massive solar flare eruption on the farside of the Sun. If that solar flare had hit the Earth, it would have caused heavy radiation damage to satellites and wireless communication but luckily it wasn't facing our planet. However, the same…

PARIS— EDF SA EDF -0.08% warned of lower power generation this year across its nuclear reactors in France, dealing a setback to the country’s efforts to ride out Europe’s energy crisis amid a spell of unseasonably warm weather. EDF, the world’s largest owner of nuclear plants, said its French fleet of reactors are expected to produce between 275 and 285 terawatt-hours of energy in 2022, compared with a previous estimate of between 280…